


Straying Parallels

by Jen425



Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider Blade, Kamen Rider Decade, Kamen Rider Gaim, Kamen Rider Kuuga, Kamen Rider Zi-O, Tokusatsu
Genre: Character Study, Crossover Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:55:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28259553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: What it means to live in parallel.
Relationships: Godai Yuusuke & Onodera Yuusuke, Hikari Natsumi & Kazuraba Kouta & Takatsukasa Mai, Kadoya Tsukasa & Tokiwa Sougo, Kaitou Daiki & Tachibana Sakuya
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18
Collections: Yuletide Madness 2020





	Straying Parallels

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Toku_fangirl_2015](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toku_fangirl_2015/gifts).



> Included several crossovers. Note on the Gaim one: Natsumi’s Gaim in a novel.

_ Emotion _

It’s not jealousy. Yuusuke knows what jealousy feels like, it burns hot inside him. Anger.

This isn’t jealousy, this is… inadequacy, maybe. The knowledge that the only reason he could ever be like this man was because of things that happened before he’d laid hands on his belt.

“Is something wrong?” The other Kuuga (Godai Yuusuke, 15 years older and a decade more experienced) asks. Yuusuke shakes his head.

“I guess I just remembered I only became a Rider because someone wanted me to kill Tsukasa,” Yuusuke says. “You got to choose.”

Godai laughs.

“Choice is an interesting word, there,” he says. “But I don’t regret it, do you?”

“No,” Yuusuke says. “I’ve helped so many people on so many Worlds. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

“Then there’s your answer,” Godai says. “I find it’s something I have to hold onto, sometimes. When…”

He trails off, but Yuusuke understands.

You can never forget something if it lies under your skin.

“I’m glad I met you,” he says. “May our paths cross again.”

It’s not inadequacy, either. It’s just… understanding, he supposes. Matching smiles, matching values.

Two things under their skin that beat as one.

  
  
  


_ Tragedy _

He’s young.

Natsumi supposes that’s a strange worry. She’d been the same age as his own start when she’s started along the journey with Tsukasa, the same age as he is now when she first transformed. Nonetheless, it feels strange.

He’s so young and his eyes are haunted.

So are the girl’s, actually, and she’s even younger.

(It hits her like a brick then, how young some Riders are. Wataru had been ten wen she’d met him, Asumu 12.)

Natsumi leans against a tree in this forest and says “so you found a solution.”

It’s not a happy statement. What it had taken her soul siblings to do…

They’re so young.

“We did,” Kouta says. “We’re trying to make it better.”

Natsumi watches a grey bird with purple eyes and legs land on a branch above her.

“I’d say you are,” she says. “Somehow.” She smiles at them to hide the grief she has for their stolen lives. “Why don’t you show me around?”

The least she can do is be a presence beside them, now that she’s here.

They’re too young to have this pressure, but then… so was she.

  
  
  


_ Lonesome _

Daiki is alone in the multiverse.

Not in the same way as Tsukasa, he supposes. There are others who are the brothers of a Glaive. Some are even named Daiki.

But none resonate, not the way Yuusuke had said Godai did. It’s different.

Most of the time, Glaive is tied to Blade, however, so he figures it would be another Rider tied to Blade who almost feels right.

“DiEnd,” the man says. “Are you here to steal something?”

Daiki keeps his hand behind his back, in case he needs the DiEnDriver.

“I was,” he says. “Doesn’t seem to be much here worth stealing.”

Of course not, this world’s Blade long ended his cycle. All he finds is… attempts to save someone from a fate worse than death.

Well, he can’t say that’s unfamiliar.

“I guess not,” the man replies. “Fixing this mistake will only help, perhaps, two people.”

“Sometimes that’s all you can do,” Daiki replies. “…Not that I care.”

And it’s not quite understanding, but it is, just a small bit, a connection.

  
  
  


_ Echoes _

Tokiwa Sougo isn’t him.

(He could be better, a part of him thinks.)

(He could be worse, another considers.)

Tsukasa knows this, but when he speaks to the boy’s uncle he does notice.

He does notice the way the one who’d requested his aid now and once been so vehemently opposed to Ohma Zi-O, the way he hovers at the edge.

He notices the girl helping keep things running.

Red and Gold, with powers for the sake of stopping…

Tokiwa Sougo isn’t Tsukasa. Tsukasa knows that, and he knew it even when choosing to give him his powers despite the potential dangers.

And yet. And yet there are parallels…  _ echoes _ of Tsukasa’s own story. It’s a heady feeling, actually. Because he’d always wondered if he’d been rolling himself into allowing his own existence.

He knows he’s more involved than normal, more invested in this boy, but it’s so much more than that.

No one had been able to give Tsukasa a choice, or a chance.

Kamen Rider Zi-O is not Kamen Rider Decade, because Tsukasa is giving him every chance he can get.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
